Hyperloop - Autonomous Cars - Revamped Rail Transit - And More!

Explore the future of Transportation
Our transportation system is poised for a quantum leap in many exciting ways. The current system has not had a major advance since the jet airliner. Improvements have been made but for the most part they are incremental rather than revolutionary, and the basic structure is essentially the same.

It's time for a change
Our current transportation system has major issues. Traffic jams, car crashes, expense of owning a vehicle, slow public transit, virtually no high speed trains, combersome air travel, weather related delays, and little connectivity between modes, all contribute to travel headaches. Moreover, while each existing mode of transportation has its own advantages, they also all have built in limitations that would be prohibitively expensive to fix, if it is even possible.

Change is coming
I beleve that transportation is poised to make a major leap forward in the next 10 to 30 years. I believe it is not a question of "if" these changes will happen, but "when." I believe therefore that it is not a question of if we are going to do anything about it, but what we are going to do. This web site is a call to those who are interested in being a part of driving that change.

Effect on Chattanooga
I believe that Chattanooga has great potential to be involved in these changes. I believe Chattanooga could not just take advantage of the coming technology, but could be a major hub, if not the premiere hub for improved transit in the Southeast. I believe Chattanooga could be even more than that. Chattanooga could host manufacturing and maintenance facilities, and perhaps even a regional or national headquarters. All of this, of course, would be a huge boon to our local and regional economy.

The Goal
Hyperloop, Autonomous Cars, Maglev and other technologies can be combined to provide the best of our existing forms of transportation: the speed of airplanes, the capacity of subways, the convenience of automobiles, the regional relevance of commuter rail, the safety level of trains, and more. It also promises to reduce significantly the disadvantages of current systems, such as congestion on highways, inflexibility of rail transit, the hassle of getting to and through large airports, and transfer times. A system that offers all this will inevitably be in high demand. This means heavy usage which in turn helps reduce per-user costs. This also means higher revenue, which of course is critical for maintaining the system, expanding into new markets, and providing low prices for trips. And all this can be done while also giving the end user a pleasurable experience.

Since these changes are only starting, now is the time to make these systems meet a broader range of uses than existing systems, think about how to best implement them, provide necessary manufacturing and maintenance facilities, and so forth.

Instead of the various modes competing with each other, the transportation system of the future will likely not replace any existing mode of transportation entirely. Instead, it will be a far more integrated whole, where existing modes and new systems such as Hyperloop and Maglev, will compliment each other in ways that in most cases makes all modes function even better. This web site is dedicated to explaining and promoting ideas that can make this future happen.

About this Web Site
This web site is dedicated to promoting the use of new technologies and ideas related to transportation for the benefit of Chattanooga and the world.

My name is Bill Ensinger, and I have typed up and organized the initial information on this web site, which is quite extensive at its start. However, I am seeking forward thinking individuals, visionaries, and anyone else who is interested to contribute their own ideas.
NEWS
First passengers in a Hyperloop pod!
Virgin Hyperloop has tested their pod with 2 passengers traveling inside their 1/4 mile long test tube outside Las Vegas, NV. The trip took 15 seconds, with a top speed of 107mph (172km/h). Click here for details from BBC. Click here for the Virgin Hyperloop home page.

Amtrak proposes route from Nashville to Atlanta via Chattanooga
News has been circulating on January 16, 2020 that Amtrak wants to create a route between Nashville and Atlanta. Details are sketchy and as of this date nothing on Amtrak's web site about this in their news section. Click here for details from Channel 3 WRCBtv. I am skeptical of this effort, but I'll be following the story closely.

High Speed Tunnel to open in Los Angeles in December 2018!
Elon Musk has announced the opening of a rapid-transit test tunnel under LA. Top speed is to be 150mph. The tunnel is 2 1/2 miles long and opens to public Dec. 10. Rides are said to cost $1 each. While the distance is short, the speed is phenominal. If this proves successful, longer tunnels could be built to provide inner-city transportation that will rival other modes, certainly by speed if not capacity. Click here for details from CNBC.

Hyperloop for Chattanooga 2/2018
A facebook group has been established to promite the idea of Chattanooga being not just a destination, but a hub, and even a major center for Hyperloop activity. Think Hyperloop to Atlanta (forget maglev, don't even think High Speed Rail). But think beyond that. Chattanooga could be a major hub for the southeast region, a regional dispatching and operations center, maintenance facilities for pods, pod manufacturing location, even a regional or national headquarters.

240 MPH! 12/2017
Hyperloop successfully demonstrated operation of a full size pod in a low pressure tube reaching speeds of approximately 240mph in a quarter mile tube. During this test, Hyperloop also demonstrated an airlock system that allowed the pod to transition between atmospheric pressure and the low pressure enviornment of the tube.

200 MPH! 8/2017
Hyperloop successfully demonstrated operation of a full size pod in a low pressure tube reaching speeds of approximately 200mph in a quarter mile tube.

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Part of the purpose of this web site is to encorage the brainstorming of additional ideas for how Hyperloop can be used to improve existing transportation systems and meet future transportation needs. Your ideas are welcome, and if they don't duplicate ideas already incorporated here, they will be added if deemed appropriate. Either way, I will make every reasonable effort to respond to every enquiry and/or idea with the goal of developing the idea into practical reality. Put your thinking caps on!

I am startig to create an animated demo to show how capacity on a subway system is wasted by design. I am seeking the help of others to develop this. The result of any time I have available to work on this will appear here.

What is shown below is a diagram showing how many passengers are able to ride in a subway train carring a given number of people serving a given number of stations. These two factors can be changed to see the result. The algorithm used assumes that trains will run at a frequency so as to make sure the train does not get overcrowded at any point. Unfortunately, this means significant wasted space at the beginning and the end of the route. Passengers are generated randomly, with a random starting and ending station, then the number of passengers on each segment of the route ar calculated. When any segment of the route reaches the point of maximum train capacity, no new passengers are generated, because at that point the train doors have closed and the train is run.

The diagram below shows on the left a train route with tick-marks for stations. On the right the black area shows how many passengers are on the train between each pair of stations. Passengers use 1 pixel each in a horizontal direction.

Animation
There are also input boxes and controls for an animated demonstration of unused capacity. The purpose of this is to demonstrate how difficult it is to achieve a low rate of unused capacity without suffering from overcrowding at any portion of a route. I present this as a challenge to find the ideal conditions to maximize used capacity and minimize unused capacity.

Use the input fields and buttons below to challenge yourself to achieve this goal. As soon as the first train finishes unloading at the end of the line, data will be displayed showing how many passengers were carried, how much capacity was available, how much capacity was used, and how much capacity was left unused. Also, if any station had passengers still waiting after a train departs, a warning message will appear showing that there is overcrowding at a particular station.

There are default values put into the input fields that will give you an idea as to what works and how things work.

Future improvements
I would like to exapnd this demo to cover many additional statistics, including but not limited to the following, including how each interacts and changes the others.
Cost of stations, track, cars, and other infrastructure
Amount of time train runs full or less than full, with related statistics
Fares and total passenger revenue
Effect of different train lengths and frequencies of train operation, including variations of both on different parts of the route
Branching routes and transfer stations with other lines
Average trip length per passenger, both distance and time (provide result and control input)
Adjust for common/uncommon origin/sdestinations and how busy each station is, including rush hours, off peak, weekend, and special events.
Account for speed, distance, and station dwell time, all of which may vary on different portions of the route
Crowding at a station based on train frequency, neighborhood density, destination options via the station, and any other factors I can think of
Animate the results, possibly in real time, allow interactive animation while animation is running, making it like a game.
I'm sure there's more.



Animation Speed interval, thousanths of a second

Number of Lines: (up to 10)
1



Observations
Unused Capacity Only when there are 2 stations is the unused capacity at 0%. Unused capacity rises sharply until there are about 15 stations. After about 20 stations, unused capacity seems to level off in the low 30% range. And this remains true no matter how many stations there are. Even with 100,000 stations, unused capacity was at about 34%!
Total Passengers With a train that can hold 500 people, the maximum number of passengers a train will carry on its end to end trip never goes much higher than about 1000, even with 100,000 stations!

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This web page is sponsored by Dixie Soaps, makers of high quality natural goat milk soap and other related products. For more information, visit: Dixie Soaps

Technical Information about our web site
Our web site is built with HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. Bill built the framework code developing several features along the way. This framework is available for use by others to build other web sites. For details, click here.

Our web site is built with HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. Bill built the framework code developing several features along the way. This framework is available for use by others to build other web sites.

Features of this web site include:
-A multi-level menu bar that works on both tablet and desktop/laptop computers
-Use of javascript to generate templates for repeating data
-A javascript array used as a database containing "normalized" data.
-Taking the concept of using css to separate style information and applying it to javascript code and web page data.
-code that will work for separate related web sites
-A modal pop-up box that behaves itself nicely, easily invoked and easily dismissed
-A picture gallery page with thumbnails built on some of the above concepts
-Displaying sections of a web page that would otherwise be separate files on the server but are instead all contained in one file, reducing the number of files on your server
-Implimentation of code that "detects" the backbutton and responds to it appropriately in places where the backbutton wouldn't otherwise work
-A 404 error page not found page that identifies links that were once valid but are no longer valid, providing the end user with a message that is different for each of any number of possible unique wrong URL's
-A 404 error page not found page that also looks like a regular page except for its unique error reporting content, so users can access the menu bar to navigate to a valid page, as opposed to staring at a cryptic text page or some browser generated message
-A popup menu that provides an alternative to the < select > html tag.
-responsive design
-Features such as marking an item low or out of stock, adding variations, setting a featured item,
-Lots of room for flexibility
-Works well with the Dansie Shopping Cart

This framework is available for sale. I will send you all the base files to make it work, along with a file with instructions on how to set everything up. I will also include a 1 year service plan to fix anything that doesn't work as advertised. I can also provide additional support and add requested features for an additional pre-arranged fee.

This framework does not do certain things. They include but are not limited to:
It does not provide a shopping cart, however I have designed it to work with the dansie shopping cart.
It does not provide user/customer login. I am actually looking to add this feature but am not sure how. If you know, please contact us.
I do not make any other warranties for fitness for a particular purpose or any other guarantees.
To share your ideas or ask questions, please contact me.

Bill222E @ ensingers.com (remove spaces)

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